Resolution from last Sunday's Hannover conference on Bangladesh

Resolution of the 9th Bangladesh-Conference, Hannover/Germany


This Conference, held as part of the “European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008”,

aware that Bangladeshi communities in European countries fervently hope for agreement between the stakeholders on the necessary steps to be taken for an orderly democratic process leading to peaceful elections on December 18;

noting that the European Union is sending an observer mission to monitor the elections, and that EU help may be needed to consolidate the transition to democracy

1. Respectfully calls on the caretaker government and the political parties to reach agreement without further delay on the conditions for registration of the parties;
2. Further requests the government and the political parties to reach agreement on the lifting of the state of emergency to allow freedom of expression and of movement, coupled with a prohibition on incitement to violence or communal hatred;
3. Calls on the parties to discuss a review of the constitution, to reduce the power of the political parties over the choice of candidates, and to amend Article 70, which deprives MPs of freedom to exercise their own judgement;
4. Welcomes the public discussion of the necessity of bringing to justice the perpetrators of the war crimes of 1971, and
5. Respectfully hopes that the incoming democratic government will implement the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord in full